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Colleen
Collins and
Shaun
Kaufman,
Private Eyes
"Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from
the center." —Kurt Vonnegut
The guest speakers for the April meeting, PIs Colleen Collins and Shaun
Kaufman, shared stories "from the edge" in their presentation "Dead Bodies
and Dead Ends: Power Plays of Murder: Lessons for the PI." Shaun and Colleen
own Highlands Investigations and Legal Services.
Shaun, a retired trial attorney, specializes in forensic and financial
investigations, domestic relations and civil surveillances, and criminal
litigation assistance. He co-authored an article on polygraph techniques,
published in PI Magazine in May/June 2005.
Colleen is a graduate of the Private Investigator Academy of the Rockies,
and specializes in witness locates and interviews, surveillances, and
infidelity investigations. She conducts online courses on the mechanics
of private investigations for other professionals. She is a multi-published,
award-winning author and her articles on private investigations have been
published on various Internet sites as well as in PI Magazine.
As Colleen explained, the title of the presentation was chosen because
"…most mystery writers are interested in dead bodies; even more interested
in murder; and some of you might be writing stories with PI protagonists
and might be interested in a PI's perspectives and lessons learned from
murder and its power plays."
After Shaun's disclaimer that their knowledge of any organized criminal
enterprise is limited to their own research, work, and individuals they've
known, they launched into an interesting, sometimes chilling, discussion
of real-life power plays of murder, sharing examples of some cases they
worked on. Their discussion, laced with humor, focused on how organized
crime (gangs and mobs) employs violence for revenge, concealment, and
intimidation. They discussed real-life power plays of murder, lessons
learned, and examples of power play in fiction.
Crime motivation - revenge
• " Power play: attempted murder as an act of revenge
• " Overview of case: Gang-boyfriend discovers his gang-girlfriend
(and mother of his child) with a rival gang member. Boyfriend attempts
to kill rival gang member with a screwdriver in front of girlfriend; victim
manages to walk out onto the porch and is seen by one neighbor.
• " Lessons learned: It is extremely difficult dealing with the gangs'
"Omerta" (gangs' code of honor which includes vows to respect the organization's
rules, hierarchy, rules of conduct, and punishments for breaking any code).
Since the victim's injuries prevented him from identifying who stabbed
him, and because the one witness who was willing to talk, died from a
heart attack, the code of silence numbed any efforts to prosecute the
case. "Unless the government protects people who are willing to testify,
the age-old device of enforced silence within a criminal organization
will prevail." Other lessons learned include:
o No one in jail wants to cooperate;
o Practical and personal codes prevent witnesses
from testifying;
o Drugs and alcohol are a huge problem;
o Revenge over "matters of the heart" is
common;
o Gang culture owns women - they are considered
chattel.
Shaun then shared examples of revenge-based power plays in fiction, such
as Romeo and Juliet, the movie The Godfather, and The
Sopranos.
Crime motivation - concealment
• " Power play: concealment to protect against conviction - controlling
the case.
• " Overview of case: Involved powerful family with ties to organized
crime. Eldest son was charged with numerous sex assaults related to his
nightclub ownership. While awaiting trial on those charges, he was accused
of soliciting another inmate to murder the women who were going to testify
against him. The inmate, after receiving partial payment for these hits,
called his attorney and agreed to testify against the eldest son.
• " Lessons learned: When someone is looking at a long prison sentence,
desperation defeats reason. The most important lessons here are "client
control and client responsibility."
• " Power plays in fiction:
o The Sopranos—Adriana's murder (concealment
of Mafia secrets from FBI);
o The Good Shepard—woman thrown from
the plane to stop the leak of information;
o The Wire—drug dealer seen talking to
the cops was killed by his own people.
Shaun and Colleen did feel threatened during their investigation of this
case—they started to feel as if the could be objects of the family's
wrath.
Crime motivation - intimidation
• " Power play: intimidation as turf war.
• " Overview of case: Local bar patron/good citizen goes to his favorite
neighborhood bar (cousin is bartender) for Saturday night beer. While
there, Westside Blood gang members are acting out by flashing signs to
show their control (marking their territory). Patron discourages gang
members, who beat him to death with bar stools outside the bar (on a main
Denver street.) In this case, witnesses approached the scene but were
punched and threatened and told to mind their own business; the witnesses
then called the police. The patron's family sued the bar claiming the
bar owner did not provide adequate security even knowing that there was
a high probability of violence from the gangs. During their investigation,
Shaun and Colleen photographed tagging on the bar that indicated the Westside
Bloods "owned" this West Denver corner.
• " Lessons learned: Tattoos, tagging, clothing, vehicle ownership
are all cultural symbols that affirm membership in these organizations.
By researching gang symbols and dress, they were able to determine which
gangs are in control of certain areas.
• " Power plays in fiction: Omar's boy Brandon in The Wire,
and the horse's head in The Godfather.
After a discussion on gang symbols, Shaun cautioned the audience to think
twice about getting inked with a gang symbol for the sake of style.
Colleen closed their presentation with another quote from Kurt Vonnegut:
"I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody
tell you different."
—Submitted by Bobbi Rubingh 4/19/07
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